Due to the Democratic Party's policies of "proportional representation" in primaries, which provides losing candidates with delegates in rough relation to their share of the vote, it is now mathematically impossible for Hillary Clinton to overcome Barack Obama's lead in "pledged" delegates won through primaries and caucuses. Since most counts omit Florida and Michigan, since their delegate votes won't count, his lead in popular votes cast will be most difficult to surmount as well. Of course, "popular vote" nationally is meaningless under Democratic Party rules (even as it is meaningless in general elections), but if Hillary could manage to eke out a lead there it would undermine the argument that super delegates who support her are "thwarting the will of the people."
As the polls show the race in Pennsylvania getting closer, it may become a goal beyond her reach in any case. But it is interesting to note that virtually all of Obama's current lead in "popular votes" cast comes from his home state of Illinois, and the majority of that from notorious Cook County, his home base. Tom Elia of The New Editor posted the details last month, and now updates to answer challenges to his numbers:
In the race for the most popular votes in the Democratic Party's presidential primary contests, Sen. Barack Obama's lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton is about 711,000 votes -- not including Florida or Michigan -- according to Real Clear Politics.Of Sen. Obama's 711,000 popular-vote lead, 650,000 -- or more than 90% of the total margin -- comes from Sen. Obama's home state of Illinois, with 429,000 of that lead coming from his home base of Cook County.
That margin in Cook County represents almost 60% of Obama's total lead nationwide.
Read the whole post at the above link. Elia also notes Obama's margin in Cook County (over 400,000 votes more than Hillary) is greater than the margin of either candidate in any other state.
Fortunately, Cook County is well known for its honest politics and accurate election results, so his big win can't be questioned. And - huh? what's that? Oh, yeah, right . . .
Never mind.
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Filed under:
2008 Presidential Race, Democrats, Election Results, Obama, Primaries
Tags: Democratic presidential campaign, Illinois, Obama, popular vote
